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Bangor man arrested in connection with Ohio Street drug raid

BANGOR, Maine — A Bangor man who unwittingly sold drugs to undercover agents was arrested last week on two counts of felony aggravated drug trafficking.

As of Wednesday night, Gordon McLaughlin, 46, remained at Penobscot County Jail, where he was being held on $2,500 cash bail, a jail official confirmed.

McLaughlin, who was arrested on Union Street in Bangor on Nov. 22, is accused of selling heroin and cocaine to drug agents on two occasions, Darrell Crandall, commander of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency’s Division II, said this week.

McLaughlin has been charged with two counts of aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs, each of them a Class A felony carrying a penalty of up to 30 years in prison and up to $50,000 in fines.

Crandall said McLaughlin is believed to be among the large group of people linked to a suspected cocaine ring that was broken up on Nov. 2 as the result of a pair of drug raids that state and federal drug agents and Bangor police conducted at neighboring apartment buildings at 100 and 102 Ohio St.

Four people associated with the raided apartments were arrested that day on cocaine trafficking charges filed by federal officials, according to stories published earlier this month in the Bangor Daily News.

Some of the suspects were charged in the weeks leading up to the raid and others were arrested as recently as that day, Crandall said at that time. He also noted that MDEA agents were still on the lookout for three suspects facing charges for their roles in the operation.

McLaughlin’s criminal history includes convictions in 2003 for assault, obstructing report of a crime, violating conditions of release and unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, according to the BDN archives.

He also was convicted of drunken driving in 1990.

All of the people charged in connection with the drug operation will be prosecuted by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, Crandall said.